Wide Auto-x Tires - 245/4X/17

TurfBurn

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'01 Yellow MP3 #1026
I was running at Solo National Tour this weekend (sucked it up in day 2 as well... ) and talked to a guy with a 3.5 MSP that was running 245/40/17 Hoosiers on rims with a 45 offset. They said they only had the slightest bit of rubbing.

I run the JIC coilovers and have found that with my 45 offset 7.5" wide rota rims that the rear suspension can only go to -2 camber before I get contact with the strut body. So I need to push out a bit to run more camber. I run about -3.5 up front. I want to go to a 245/45/17 Kumho V710 on the car but have concerns about clearance and rubbing. any thoughts? I intend to go to all 4 corners with these tires as my car does rotate beautifully running equal sizes at all corners.

I currently run Kumho V710's in a 205/50/15 on a 6.5 40 offset rim which gives me plenty of clearance in back to gain more camber.

I believe Jeff from Tri-point was who the guys recommended I talk to in order to see what would be best!

Thanks!

Steve
 
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I'm thinking my camber should 'help' the clearance for me front and rear, but I'm thinking of running about a 28 offset instead of the 45 because of needing it for the clearance. But I could go with a matched set of rims that are 40 offset for the front and 28 for the rear, just hard on tires for wear then.
 
What rules are you trying to build under if any? I was talking to Jeff about this last night. Why pinch yourself by running the 17" rims. If your dead set on the 245 tire why not go with 16X8" rims and the Hoosier 245/45-16? That will leave you more room with the fender and probably give a little better gearing.
 
SM (street mod). I thought about the 16" ones as well, but what I found there was limited availability of sizes... I am NOT a hoosier fan at all so I'm trying to avoid hoosier when possible with this. I know the 16" will save me about a half inch of clearance which may be critical, but the availability issues etc... I also can get my hands on some 17x8 rims in several favorable offsets at 20 lbs for about 130 each brand new.... Trying to do things affordably, but at the same time do it well.
 
Did a calculation on Miata.net

245/45/16
Sidewall: 4.3"
Radius: 12.3"
Diameter: 24.7"
Circumference: 77.5"
Revs/mile: 817.0

235/40/17
Sidewall: 3.7"
Radius: 12.2"
Diameter: 24.4"
Circumference: 76.7"
Revs/mile: 827.0


Seems like the 16" would be faster but now it comes down to the availbility of tires that you want.

Edit: Just did a quick search on tire rack and it seems that the 16" just doesn't have a huge choice of street tires, but if your running Street Mod, it doesn't matter to much then.
 
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There is nothing wrong with the new Hoosiers if the car is setup properly. I'm guessing it may be something else you don't like about Hoosier.

In all honesty, if you want to be competitive in SM or SP in a 3rd Gen Protege you will have to run the Hoosier 275/35-15.
 
275's on the front of a SM Civic

IMG_0253_Fixed.jpg
 
TurfBurn said:

So they were running illegal wheels for stock class? Guess it is a good thing they can't drive.

The big problem with the 245/45/17 Kumho IIRC is how tall they are. You are currently running a 22.9 OD tire and the 245/45/17 is a 25.7 OD tire. I have heard rumors that there is a 225/45/17 V710 that is only currently available to MX-5 Cup drivers so you might want to check and see if there is any truth to that rumor. Or look at other tire brands like Hankook.
 
moxnix said:
So they were running illegal wheels for stock class? Guess it is a good thing they can't drive.
I thought stock was 50?
 
xelderx said:
There is nothing wrong with the new Hoosiers if the car is setup properly. I'm guessing it may be something else you don't like about Hoosier.

In all honesty, if you want to be competitive in SM or SP in a 3rd Gen Protege you will have to run the Hoosier 275/35-15.

I didn't care for the responsiveness of the hoosiers (I was running as304's though at the time) and the wear on them just never matches up to what the Kumho's get for longevity. Also, there have been a number of complaints in our region with Hoosiers of them overheating even when wetted between runs.
 
Keep in mind too that I have NO problem getting the extra mass/diameter rotating with the horsepower on the car.... so that side of it is not a concern.

I'm not looking to be fully competitive on a national level... just regionally and potentially division.
 
moxnix said:
So they were running illegal wheels for stock class? Guess it is a good thing they can't drive.

The big problem with the 245/45/17 Kumho IIRC is how tall they are. You are currently running a 22.9 OD tire and the 245/45/17 is a 25.7 OD tire. I have heard rumors that there is a 225/45/17 V710 that is only currently available to MX-5 Cup drivers so you might want to check and see if there is any truth to that rumor. Or look at other tire brands like Hankook.

Yeah, I guess that would make them illegal, didn't think about it, they can't change rim width right? He said they can be within 5 mm offset of the OEM and be "okay" I guess... I don't know all his exact details as it wasn't in my class so I wasn't interested more than that they had the 245's on there.

I have the JIC's in the car, so if I need a half inch or so of height I can change that to get around the extra height of the tires. I believe they are actually only about .4 inches taller sidewall than the Hoosiers.
 
xelderx said:
275's on the front of a SM Civic

IMG_0253_Fixed.jpg

Yeah... seen a number of civics like this with the 275's in front and 225's in rear... bastards are light too... typically right at min weight (around 1900 lbs). I'm not willing to go to that length yet though and cut fenders etc... if I do go to that level at some point, then I'd consider that option.

My deal is I know that I as a driver have a lot of improving to do, but also want to work out some of the car setup stuff as I do improve so that I'm not trying to re-sort the car again... I just finally have it close to dialed in and am finding the shortcomings of the 205's now, so I want to move up and get the car re-sorted and feel confident in the overall setup for the next 2 years or so. At that point I'll either switch cars and get out of SM, or go all out and see what I can manage... but that means doing aero work and a lot of other dinking around as well.
 
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